


spaces in between

by happyisahabit



Series: Starlight Collection [20]
Category: Soul Eater
Genre: ALL the hand holding prompts, Accidental Touches, F/M, Fist bumps, Gen, Soul Eater Rarepair Day, applying bandaids, eventually will have v tender hand holding, high fives, pinky swear, punching friends in the face
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23230642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyisahabit/pseuds/happyisahabit
Summary: Asked for the Most Tender Hand-Holding, but I have to build up to it. Tons of prompts to burn through.1. Applying Bandages2. High Fives3. Fist Bumps4. Accidental Brushes5. Pinky Swear
Relationships: Maka Albarn & Black Star, Maka Albarn/Black Star
Series: Starlight Collection [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/674591
Kudos: 13





	1. applying bandages

“Hold still!” Maka says, authority lacing her voice with all the squeakiness of her seven years. Her small brow is scrunched up in frustration and concentration, tongue poking out as she tries to grip Black Star’s hand with one of hers and stick on the vibrant blue band-aid with the other. “You’re making this worse!”

“‘Cause it HURTS, Maks…” Black Star whines. His hand flinches in her clutches and he hisses when the plaster gets within an inch of the small cut on his finger.

“You’re a baby, Star!” she baits.

“I’m a Big Star!” he puffs up, indignant and ridiculous at seven and three quarters. His cheeks puff out as he glares at her. His blue eyes widen and he twitches hard in his seat when she sticks the bandage on firmly when he least expects it.

“You’re a Big Baby, maybe,” Maka laughs at him. Black Star squints at her and clasps her thumb that sits in his palm, her hand still wrapped around his wrist. He favors his newly bandaged finger by keeping it straight as he tugs her toward him.

His uninjured hand grabs at her unprotected side and she squeals, trying to wrench out of his grip. Peals of laughter ring out in the tiny bathroom at the Albarn apartment as the two play-wrestle themselves back into the living area. They tumble across the floor on the plush carpet hands pushing against each other, trying to get the upper hand. In no time at all, the band-aid is forgotten.


	2. high fives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> high fives, good vibes

“Annnnd… DISMOUNT!” Maka yells. Black Star’s feet hit the ground not quite together, but not far enough apart to put him off balance. She gives him a few claps as he bows to the audience of no one but her at the jungle gym outside the academy. “My turn!”

“You gotta do the twist thing!” he calls after her as she runs to the other end of their ‘course’.

The play area is made up of cargo nets, plastic tunnels and tubes, slides, ladders, and tons of weirdly shaped purple things that were especially fun to use while playing the lava game. On the side Black Star stood at, there was a set of monkey bars then finally, a set of parallel bars. When she gets to the end, she holds up a thumb and waves at her friend, his blue hair sticking out against the drab browns of the desert town.

It’s a good thing her friend is so darn loud. She can literally see him breathe in deep and cup his hands around his mouth below he yells: “GO!”

Maka takes off, all grins and childish energy. Up and around the purple things, making the requisite loops and and jumps. Scrambling up the cargo net and launching herself into the playground tube only to hang an immediate right and spin down a fireman’s pole. The bridge is next, bouncing her around with each step. A few steps to the top of the structure and she can hoist herself over the rim of the slide.

She slips down to the whoops of Black Star and tumbles across the mulch. Springing up, Maka makes a mad dash for the monkey bars. She skips the small ladder and just jumps- catching the first rung and using that momentum to skip the second straight onto the third. Her feet kick up and catch on the last rung, hooking it behind her knees. Her pigtails flip into her face as she swings until she can safely release and land just next to the parallel bars. 

Gripping the bar, she flips over it, hooking the second again behind her knees and catching it with her hands again. Her feet bounce backward to help her switch bars again. Last trick left- she pushes up on the bar, braces a foot on it and in an instant, jumps!

Clearing the other bar, she spins in the air, adding that requisite twist. The dust springs from the ground and the noise reaches her ears with the blood rushing through them.

“YAHOO!!!” Black Star crows, barely giving her time to take another breath before he near tackles her in a spinning hug. The pair grins and giggles and Black Star offers her the highest of honors- a double stand-up high five.

She slaps his hands as hard as she can and then flops back onto the hard ground, breathing hard. Maka can hear him do much the same, mouth going a mile a minute with his play by play recount of her latest run and his laughter.


	3. fist bumps

“I got my weapon today!” Maka says, bouncing through his front door.

“Sick! That’s so cool,” he grins watching her spin around the tiny apartment. She flops back onto the floor mats with a satisfied sigh. He sits next to her hip, cross-legged, nodding and interjecting along to her story of Soul, his scythe form, and his bizarrely musical introduction.

“Alright!” Black Star shouts, popping up to his feet. “Tomorrow’s gonna be the day the Great Me gets his own weapon! I’ll tell everyone of my power and strength and I’ll find the best weapon out there!”

Maka sits up and leans back on her hands, watching him with excitement and amusement in equal measure. “Good luck trying to surpass me and Soul!” she teases. 

“Me and my partner- we’re gonna kick your asses!” he challenges, even as his hand forms a fist and is held out to her.

“Sure, sure… you just gotta find them first,” she says. Maka grins wider and bumps her fist against his.


	4. accidental touches

Maka can’t move, but she can still feel everything.

Black Star’s hands are warm and calloused, pushing her hair back and moving her face around as he wants. No matter how much she whines at him or complains, it won’t stop her friend. His grip is firm on her face, fingers tangled in her fringe as he uncaps a marker with his teeth. She yells bloody murder as he signs her forehead. The squeaky pen feels rough on her skin and the drying ink would send a twitch down her back if she could move even that much.

Later, when the noise he brings with him is gone, when Tsubaki and Liz have helped remove the marks from her forehead, she can still feel but not move. Later, when Black Star comes in just as visiting hours are closing, quiet and wrapped in sweats that she knows hide injuries, she sees his hands bandaged. Later, when he mumbles things that don’t make sense, when he places a candy on her bed, he brushes his knuckles against her elbow.

Maka can feel everything, but still can’t move.


	5. pinky swear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it feels like a pinky swear

Maka knows how it feels to be frustrated beyond belief. She feels it often, but never has she felt it more in the presence of her closest childhood friend than right now. She barely blinks, barely even  _ thinks _ before her fist snaps out to catch Black Star in the face. 

This battle resonance lesson is so important to her and she can’t help but feel that he isn’t trying to match up with the rest of their cell at all. It took so long for her to actually match up with Soul- her  _ partner _ \- that they had to collect Kishin souls with brute force for most of their partnership. Their connection is still shaky at times, like trying to hold hands by only pressing palms together. With Stein’s proclamation that anyone unable to perform group resonance by the end of the day being cut from their class… well, Maka can’t let that happen.

Without this, without soul reaping, what would she have?

Black Star, with all his athleticism and confidence and devil-may-care attitude, can’t possibly understand her concerns. She was born into this life; it is all she knows. So when he sticks out like a corner piece in the middle of a jigsaw puzzle, she tries to make him fit by smashing him with a hammer. Kid meets her soul with his in a hand shake, but Black Star always leads with a fist. This time, Maka leads with clenched fingers and knuckles.

When he skids back and spits out blood, he combines it with venom that throws her fury-riddled brain over the edge.

“Are you satisfied now? If you come at me again, for a duel... I really will crush you.”

Frustration, humiliation, guilt, anger… the stress hormones rocking her body are off the charts. Maka storms off in tears, trying desperately to expel the adrenaline and cortisol through her eyes. The view of the city at the edge of the forest helps a bit; talking with Tsubaki and going through her conversations with Stein in her head helps more. She bolts up, adrenaline flushing her system again, but for different reasons: excitement, anticipation.

When she returns, Maka hesitates for only a moment, before they resonate. It is clean and easy to connect this time. Maka feels the way Kid and Black Star’s souls link with hers, secure, but temporary, a comforting feeling of someone by your side, like linking a pinky with someone while walking. They pass the lesson.

On the walk home, Maka asks Black Star to make it even, despite the protests of the others. He grins and cracks his knuckles. The banter is warm and worn, in ways that she’s sure aren’t as familiar to their other friends, given the worry and disapproval radiating off of Tsubaki, Soul and Kid. But if their new group soul resonance has reminded Maka of anything about Black Star, about their friendship, it was days of scuffles, fisticuffs, hair pulling, and pinky swears, all in equal measure.

So Maka doesn’t flinch when Black Star tells her to clench her teeth nor when he bashes his fist into her cheek. She can only continue mirroring his own grin. The cobblestone is rough on her back and her cheek hurts like  _ hell _ , but she still smiles through it. He yanks her to her feet, hand firmly gripping hers. When he lets go, she snags his pinky, as she’s done a hundred times, before weapons, before the academy, before kishin.

They say nothing, but their grinning faces split further past the pain of matching bruised cheeks.


End file.
